AI ‘pastor’ leaves churchgoers surprised but uninspired
ChatGPT penned a 40-minute service for congregants during a Protestant conference in Germany. Deposit Photos The reviews are in for a recent, AI-led church service in Germany—and the spiritual takeaways are mixed, to say the least. According to a recap from The Associated Press on Friday, a ChatGPT bot embodied by multiple on-screen avatars oversaw a 40-minute devotional for over 300 congregants at St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth. The experimental service—featuring music, prayers, and an AI-generated sermon—took place as part of Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag, a biennial Protestant convention in Germany whose theme this year, aptly enough, was entitled “Now is the time.” [Related: ‘Godfather of AI’ quits Google to talk openly about industry dangers.] Overseen by Jonas Simmerlein, a 29-year-old theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna, ChatGPT produced...